Volunteering & CSR

The Passage
The Passage
The Passage
The Passage

The Passage

The Passage’s mission is to provide resources, which encourage, inspire and challenge homeless people to transform their lives.

Based in Carlisle Place, Victoria, the organisation offers a wide range of services, year round to help homeless and vulnerable people. They operate the UK’s largest voluntary sector day centre, including street outreach work in the local area and a direct access hostel.

The Passage has a strong culture of volunteering and they are very grateful to those who offer their time and skills to support the important work they do. They have more than 300 volunteers who help in all areas of the organisation and they are always looking for new ways for volunteers to become involved. If you have strong skills and experience in certain areas, the list below shows what they are looking for in terms of expertise.

OPPORTUNITIES [Enquiry Form]

Seeing is Believing

Improve your awareness of what it means to be homeless by taking a tour of The Passage. You will shown the work undertaken at The Passage and the services they provide rough sleepers in Victoria, including services to meet basic needs and help with resettlement and rehabilitation at the Day Centre, hostel and Montfort House. This is an excellent way of introducing the issue of homelessness or as a precursor to further volunteering or charity fundraising for you and your team. Visits take one hour and can be arranged by appointment.

Mock Interviews

If you and your business can spare a few hours to run mock interviews for individuals trying to get back into the labour market this will be an invaluable way to support local people back to work. Interview experience in a range of sectors from finance, retail, hospitality or general office environment would be welcome.

Hospitality Team

Would you like to support a local homeless charity Day Centre by creating a safe and welcoming environment for clients, staff and volunteers. You would assist the team by greeting clients as they arrive, directing clients to appointments, monitoring health and safety and researching information about external services. You need to be reliable, polite but assertive, calm and able to develop professional relationships within boundaries. You would need to be available at least one day per week, preferably Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, 7am - 2pm, for at least 6 months.

Employment Support

The Education, Training and Employment (ETE) team offers support with job searches, lifeskills training and literacy. Volunteers work with clients on a 1:2:1 basis helping them to create a CV, develop interview techniques, learn basic computer skills and look for employment. Volunteers need to be reliable, patient, have basic IT skills and able to work with clients within boundaries. You need to be available every Monday, 9.15am - 1pm, for a minimum of 6 months.

Team Volunteering

Throughout the year there are a number of opportunities to get involved with team activities to support the operations of a local homeless charity. These activities can draw on your teams skills and can be anything from redecorating to mass fundraising campaigns.

Social activities with our clients

If your organisation would like to host an activity or day out for the clients of the local homeless drop-in centre this is a fun way to engage with people from different backgrounds based in the area, be it a trip to the seaside or london museum you can get involved and make your own suggestions as to how you and your business would like to be involved.

Interpretors/ Translators

Volunteers are needed at the local homeless day centre who can speak different languages, including Tigrinya, Lithuanian, Romanian, Albanian, Czech, Slovak, Spanish and Portuguese. You would need to be confident in English and another language so that you could interpret and translate for clients. This could include giving information about benefits or health services, telling a client about local services or helping in assessments of new clients. You would need to be available at some time between 7.30am and 6pm Monday to Friday and would be required on an ad hoc basis depending on when clients needed help with interpreting/translating. If you would like to be added to the translators directory, please get in touch.

Enquiry Form
The Passage & Diverted Giving

Victoria BID is working with local partners to find long term solutions to homelessness whilst addressing some of the problems associated with aggressive begging. We have introduced a scheme to enable shoppers to make a donation to local charities using clearly marked and secure donation points. Funds raised are going to local charities with a track record of finding longer term and sustainable solutions to homelessness in Victoria and the wider Westminster area. The scheme has been running since 25 November 2010, please support it.

Main donation points:

• Eland House
• Victoria Coach Station
• Cardinal Place
• House of Fraser

New donation boxes are available now!
Donations can be made wherever you see the Diverted Giving sign. There are an additional 25 donation boxes that have been produced and Victoria-based businesses are invited to apply to have one in their reception area or canteen, or wherever you choose to place them to encourage visitors and staff to make contributions. If you would like to know more please contact Karl Rogers Business Crime Reduction Officer call 020 3004 0788 or email: Karl Rogers

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2nd Floor, 14 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0QP 

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